The subject invention is in the field of traffic control flow systems. Two physical systems have emerged as the twin symbols of our automobile civilization; namely, the cloverleaf interchange system for high speed traffic and the intersection traffic signal system for low-speed traffic control purposes. The monumental problem of traffic complication and harassment has progressed and grown to such a great extent as to largely strangle urban existence.
By function, a cloverleaf system offers high efficiency in a traffic interchange. By form, it consists of a complex and expansive bridging, turning and ramping construction whose cost is often prohibitive. Its greatest liability is its exasperate waste of space since architectural utilization of space within or immediately contiguous to the cloverleaf system itself is totally impossible.
The discomfort of our present day traffic light controlled city intersection represents our failure to revise an archaic checkerboard planning approach whose original concept was sound but which fails to meet the needs of highly developed modern societies need of easy transport over substantial distances in a rapid manner.
A typical traffic intersection of two-way streets in a modern city contains at least 12 traffic lines out of which eight of them are engaged in the dangerous business of intersecting one another at as many as 12 points of possible vehicular contact, without counting the chance effect of undesired pedestrian contact. The danger of vehicles colliding with one another has been attempted to be controlled either by the four-way stop sign, or more sophisticatedly by the dynamic signal language of red, green, and yellow traffic control lights. Unfortunately, these systems function rather submissively at the expense of a great loss of time and peace of mind, particularly when heavy and uneven traffic loads are involved.
The cloverleaf and the city intersection systems have been accepted as being feasible only as a result of isolated type thinking and decision making by modern man. Without much consideration of the consequences that may result, there has been over emphasis on the specific goal of performance such as in speed and efficiency facilitated by a cloverleaf system even for the heart of a city.
Unsightly structures that invade vertical as well as horizontal spaces in metropolitan areas are the consequence of our over-emphasis on the time feasibility of a cloverleaf system and its like. The frustration of abrupt stop and eager crossing is the price of space feasibility of the conventional traffic light system. On top of all this, both systems contribute to the agony of both air and noise pollution.